Fluid adhesives are marketed in aerosol containers pressurized with propellant self contained within the container. In use, adhesive under pressure emerges from the discharge valve directed toward the substrate to be adhered. By the nature of adhesive materials, ordinarily sticky and often viscous, the discharge valve frequently becomes plugged and otherwise difficult to use due to dried old adhesive material collecting and hardening inside and around discharge valve after use. Considerable effort must be exerted to dislodge the blocking adhesive, while sometimes the aerosol container must be discarded if the plugging becomes extensive. In essence, adhesive blocking in the container discharge valve after each use is a nuisance to the consumer and structural changes are necessary to prevent or overcome the blocking.
It now has been found that conventional aerosol container valves can be retrofitted with throw away plastic adapters which avoid adhesive plugging after each use of the adhesive container. The adapters are inserted into the discharge valve or nozzle of the aerosol container prior to use. The adapter means is maintained in place or may be removed after the adhesive is used to assure that the discharge nozzle is maintained open and unplugged and to prevent subsequent plugging and hardening of the adhesive in the container discharge valve. If the plastic adapter means of this invention becomes plugged after one or more uses, the adapter can be discarded and replaced with a new adapter means to once again maintain the container nozzle free of plugging adhesive. Meanwhile, the original container valve remains free of plugging by hardened adhesives. The plastic adapters are cheap and easy to manufacture, simple to use by merely inserting into the container discharge valve, and can be packaged with the aerosol container for easy access. In a preferred aspect of the invention, a plastic ring can be attached to the top of the aerosol container for holding adapters which can be expediently removed from the ring to replace the previous adapter means as needed. In preferred aspects of the invention, a hand activated trigger mechanism is attached to the aerosol container where the trigger mechanism contains a central opening to accommodate the container discharge valve and the adapting means of this invention. The trigger mechanism provides biased pressure on the discharge valve to facilitate dispensing of the adhesive from the aerosol container through the container discharge valve. These and other advantages of the invention will become more apparent by referring to the drawings and the detailed description of the invention.